Behemoth!

Tony Gilroy, a writer-director best known for his work on the Jason Bourne trilogy and more recently Disney’s Andor, has taken a more intimate, character-driven turn with Behemoth!: A nimble, romantic and relentlessly hilarious drama that deals in the messiness of the human relationships between parents and the impact of their legacy, and personal shortcomings, on their children.

Set in a landscape of orchestral film scoring, Behemoth! follows Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal) – an accomplished cellist, once dubbed a child prodigy, whose unquestionable talent has not saved him from a stalling career as he travels, between film jobs and performing at birthday parties, and leaves in his wake a string of short-lived and ill-advised relationships. His family are a self-serving bunch: deceased father Peter (Hank Azaria), was absent in life but left a lasting impact in death, and ailing mother Ginnie (JoBeth Williams) were big names in the industry, as was his grandfather before them. His immature brother Andy (Will Arnett) suffers hard under the weight of their parents’ fame, and hosts a small-time music podcast in which he tries to coax an interview with Alex to dish out on their troubled upbringing. When Alex discovers true child prodigy Viviana Glenn (Alexa Swinton), the daughter of an ex-girlfriend, he begins to question her paternity and an obsession with the young artist begins to take hold.

Pedro Pascal excels in his most lived-in role yet as the complex, tragic and emotionally stilted Alex that has never found a reason to put anything above himself or his music, and it’s hard to believe this role only went to Pascal after original casting Oscar Isaac exited the project due to a scheduling conflict, as he delivers a performance that’s brimming with humour, muted sadness and an inexorable longing for a meaningful human connection. Olivia Wilde is perfectly cast as jilted ex-lover-turned-stalker Carol Spedding, and her delivery is as sinister as it is comical; and Will Arnett slips in comfortably in what feels like a more grown-up take on his Arrested Development role as a man-child stunted by an unresolved relationship with his parents.

Gilroy’s direction is where the film truly shines, from his surprisingly deft touch with comedic beats – there’s a particularly great moment in which his father’s Looney Tunes-esque music plays over a fraught domestic scene involving Arnett’s Andy – to his grasp on momentum and the movement of time, as Behemoth! plays out over a series of scenes in which one loses one’s grip on when precisely one is in time, like a memory that’s being recalled by its lead Alex. The score, unsurprisingly, is full of magnificent and grand orchestral pieces that have been pulled together by nine composers – together “the Behemoth collective” – that include industry heavyweights Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino and James Newton Howard that, despite its talent and pedigree, will amazingly be ineligible for the next Academy Awards due to their exceeding the limit of how many composers can be attached to a single project.

Gilroy’s latest is an outstanding, hyper-focused character study that expertly navigates the complexity of life, the unintended consequences of hedonism and all the space in-between that, propelled by a mature outing from its lead, finds its tempo and just riffs with it.

Ronan Fawsitt

Behemoth! is released nationwide on 4^th December 2026.

Read more reviews from our London Film Festival 2026 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the London Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Behemoth! here: